Counting Crows
by FlamesEmbrace
Summary: They don't have a choice but to acknolege him. They can't look away. SasuNaru, featuring Evil!Naruto and Evil!Sasuke. Why? Why not?
1. Default Chapter

**Counting Crows**

by Ember

**Disclaimer**: Sasuke owns your soul. Naruto owns Sasuke (and vice versa.) Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto. I keep Kishimoto tied to our guest bed in the basement. Therefore, I 0wn j00. Pwnz.

Naruto and all concepts, characters, ect, © Kishimoto.

**Warnings**: Yaoi/slash/homosexuality, lime, sexual content, profanity, violence, death (kill Hinata!) For the lemons that go with this story, or to read it a little less edited out, please visit my AFF account.

**Pairings**: SasuNaru. A little bit of one-sided SasuSaku. Maybe a little bit more, I dunno.

**Dedication**: To David. No stopping writing. Bad David. ;;

**A/N**: I couldn't help it! ;;... I tried not to, but the inspiration came to me, and wouldn't leave, and I was drawing it, and I was thinking it, and I was breathing it and... I had to write it! Now my other fics will be even MORE neglected as I add another to the pile... Now to drag myself away and shoot myself...

Review if you want me to finish this, will you? I mean, I love the plot idea (which shall, by the way, be released to you in time), mostly just because it's actually different, which is a huge thing to me! I just wish my plot ideas came to me at more convenient times!

Now, onto actual notes on the story. It may take Sasuke and Naruto a little while to become evil, but I really just want to play with that concept. 'Cause they both have the potential for so much darkness and destruction! Kukukuku... This story was almost entirely inspired by this picture: www . deviantart . com / deviation / 13704051 /. So much credit and admiration and drooling worship-love goes out to the artist. Everything else'll be explained in the story. Enjoy, all!

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Naruto wrinkled his nose, lifting his top lip a little bit to show the very tips of his white teeth. He hated the way hospitals smelled, too clean and too... scoured out, _especially_ after a week out in the dirty, fresh, earthy world on a bloody but exciting mission. One would think that a chuunin such as himself, almost a jounin and already taking S-class missions- and especially a clumsy, determined chuunin, such as himself- would be used to the smell of the hospital and its alcohol-cleaned, bleached-white serenity, but he could never quite get over how fake it was. This place saw more blood on a daily basis than he would during a week on a mission, and just sat there, sparkling white, pretending it didn't know what death was.

"Good morning, Naruto." The nurse, the forehead protector over her hair proclaiming her a medic-nin in training, waved at him and smiled, a faint rose tint around her cheeks. It took Naruto a moment to realize that she was staring at his chest, which, aside from the open jacket lying lightly on his shoulders, was completely bare- well, he hadn't had any clean shirts. He blushed back and considered zipping up the jacket, but decided that would probably just make things worse and decided to let it slide. He still wasn't used to girls _looking_ at him, especially _in that way_, the way that Sasuke assured him, a slight pout stretching his mouth cutely, they most certainly were looking at him in, and he forgot little things, like shirts, a lot.

"Good morning," he said brightly, searching for the girl's name, then, when she didn't seem to expect a personalized greeting, deciding it didn't matter. He had grown a lot since his days as a Genin, so now he was _almost_ as tall as Sasuke- though, to his chagrin, the black-haired shinobi had remained constantly just a couple inches taller. His hair was now down to his shoulders, usually pulled back into a little ponytail to keep it from fanning out into his face, though now it was loose and hung lightly, framing his face and throat. His body had gotten a _lot_ more tightly muscled, and that was what the girls of Konoha had been noticing, though Sakura remained dedicated to her obsession over Sasuke and Hinata almost seemed embarrassed that her long-term crush had become suddenly more than worthy of her attention.

"Sasuke's in his usual room," the nurse said with a smile, now staring steadily down at the visitor sign-in form, not looking up and blushing furiously, and filling it out for the blonde. She smiled, an ironic little grin that lifted a little of Naruto's worry, and said, "Tsunade has a room set aside for him, now, so there won't be a big fuss when he comes in here."

"Thanks," Naruto said, waving as he disappeared into the hallway. The nurse smiled and waved, and her unintentional stage-whisper sigh made Naruto snicker deep in his throat. There were twelve rooms on the ground floor, and Sasuke always stayed in the seventh, staring yearningly out the window where he would be training, or talking with friends, or... living his life, like he was supposed to, before everything got screwed up...

Naruto opened the door slowly, not wanting to wake up his teammate if the other was asleep, but he found Sasuke awake and sitting up, glaring at the ceiling. "Hey, Naruto."

"Hey." Smiling with relief, Naruto sauntered in and collapsed on the familiar plastic chair that was put beside the bed every time Sasuke came into this room, especially for Naruto and his frequent visits. "Let me see it, Sasuke."

The dark-haired shinobi rolled his eyes and shot Naruto an annoyed glare, his arms crossing over his chest. "You sound like Tsunade." But after a second, he yielded with a sigh and slid the shoulder of his hospital robe off, revealing the white curve of his left shoulder. The curse seal was considerably lighter than when it had first been put on him, but a few marks strayed down his arm and back, as if he was half-way into the first-stage form the seal would have turned him into so many years ago.

Naruto bit his lip and reached out to run the tips of his fingers over the gray-black markings on the white skin. Sasuke drew in a tiny gasp and pulled back, his eyes fluttering shut then opening again, red around the edges of his irises.

"Does it hurt?"

The darker shinobi's eyes darkened again and he looked away, staring at his own hand on the cotton sheets. "Naruto..."

"Just answer the question." Naruto's blue eyes were suddenly hard and the tension in his shoulders betrayed his worry.

"Yes." The black eyes flitted up to meet Naruto's. "But not so much."

"Tell Tsunade when she comes back. She'll give you something for the pain."

"I don't need to be drugged," Sasuke replied, his tone cold and final, and he stared at a meaningless spot two feet from his right foot. Sasuke had grown, too, taller and thinner than Naruto, and had, as he left childhood, grown less pretty and more attractive. Most of his fangirls- including Sakura- had stayed on his tail, though some where alternatively casting glances over their shoulders at Naruto, standing a couple feet away. His hair now dangled down to his waist- he'd grown tired of the spike he'd kept it in since childhood. He'd kept it in a ponytail until someone dropped the innocent comment on how much he looked like his brother, which was when he'd started to braid it. Now, though, it was loose and lay in a cascade down his back. Naruto reached out and ran his fingers through it, loving the way his felt in his hands and needing the physical contact after an hour and a half of worrying. Sasuke frowned, not wanting to lose his resolve, but then Naruto pulled himself a little closer and, getting out of his chair and plopping down on the side of the hospital bed, kissed Sasuke full on the lips.

"You know," the Uchiha murmured into his mouth, "this doesn't make every argument go away."

"Sure it does," the blonde replied, parting his lips and drawing his teammate's tongue into his mouth playfully.

"Someone's going to see us."

"Of course. It's all part of my plan."

"Exhibitionist."

"Damn straight."

Sasuke's hands clenched in the cloth of his best friend's shirt, then pushed him onto his back on the bed, pinning him down to the cloth sheets. He positioned himself on top then started to lean down to resume their kiss, stopping in mid-motion as the skin over his shoulders stretched and wincing painfully before he could lean far enough down. Warm hands reached up to hold his shoulders and Naruto, sliding out from under him, helped to lie him back down, the pain coursing down his shoulders.

"Guess I'm not getting any tonight," the kitsune said quietly, biting his lip with worry- and not over the lack of excitement for the rest of the evening. The curse had moved down to Sasuke's elbow, over across his throat, down his chest and back.

"Sorry," the Uchiha managed ironically.

"That's alright," Naruto said, false cheerfulness hiding his agitation as he got up and managed not to grab and mess with anything with his hands, which were clenching and unclenching with worry. "I guess I'll just find some other guy to do it for me..."

"You wouldn't dare," the quiet response came.

"I don't know..." He reached the doorway and turned around to grin and wink at his teammate, who turned towards him and smiled weakly. Naruto smiled back, then, more seriously, said, "Hey..."

There was no response.

"Sasuke, you know... that this isn't your fault, don't you?"

There was no response. Sasuke wouldn't look at him. Naruto took a breath to continue, then, finding he didn't have anything to say, he turned around, opened the door, and closed it quietly behind him, ignoring the way the nurse watched him as he walked past.

¤¤

The doors to the Hokage's office opened with a little fanfare, bouncing off the walls without so much as a single knock. Unsurprisingly, the intruder was tall, blonde, and tan, and grinned cheekily when he saw his unrespected elder working hurriedly on some report or another, a stack of Chuunin exam entrance forms lying unchecked in the corner of her desk.

"Tsunade-baba!" Naruto cried out happily. "You're up! I thought people of your age were all fast asleep by eight PM!"

Sometimes, it was amazing to think that Naruto was twenty-one years old, a successful shinobi, and one of the three heartthrobs of Konoha- those being Sasuke, Neji and the kitsune himself. He'd grown up a lot since he was a twelve-year-old Genin, though there were still moments when Tsunade marveled that he'd managed to live this long.

Of course, there were also moments when she marveled over what this life had done to a kid who, had he been given the chance, could have driven away the _kyuubi_ just by talking to it.

She sighed and shook her had, pushing her current work out of her way so Naruto could sit down and still see her face above the papers. "What's this about, Naruto? Or wait, I can guess- is it Sasuke again?"

At the mention of the name, the cheerful brightness left Naruto's face and he sat down heavily, bracing his elbows on his knees and resting his chin in his hands. Sometimes he looked so much like a kid again that she forgot the past nine years had even happened. "Tsunade-baba, how sure are we that Orochimaru is dead?"

The medic ninja frowned; this wasn't the first time Naruto had asked this, and she was getting tired of explaining it to him. "Almost entirely, Naruto. Listen- curse seals don't always disappear when the person who made the seal dies." And, to illustrate her point, she gestured with one hand at the blonde's exposed navel, where the Third's seal still circled around his abdomen. "Because the seals themselves have so much power, each one is self-sufficient."

Naruto sighed and glared at Tsunade's desk. He'd heard this all before but it wasn't enough; it still didn't explain why Sasuke would still be hurt by it, or what Naruto could do to stop it. "If Orochimaru isn't still alive, then why does the curse seal still hurt Sasuke?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Because," she said, repeating the same thing she always told him, "the curse seal still 'wants' Sasuke to accept Orochimaru, and even when its creator died, it didn't stop trying to compel its victim. Sasuke's fits are caused when he uses enough chakra to stimulate the power of the seal."

"So why don't you take it off him?" Naruto _knew_ that if she could, Tsunade would have already, but it still ticked him off that the best the Hokage could do were these cut-and-dried answers that didn't have any _substance_ to them.

"Naruto, you have to understand, the seal has a lot of power inside of it, and a lot of... a lot of Orochimaru, to put it in the best way I can. The only way to break it would-" She stopped suddenly, breaking off in mid-sentence.

"Would... what?"

In a strained, quiet voice, Tsunade said briskly, "The only way to break it would destroy Sasuke, Naruto. It would... it would absolutely destroy him."

Naruto stared at her in disbelief. She wouldn't meet his eyes. Without saying anything, Naruto got up and left her office, not bothering to close the doors behind himself.

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E/N: Dundundun! So, what do you think? Too confusing? Not enough stuff explained in-depth? Too short? Too fast? Absolute crap I shouldn't have had the gall to publish? Well, but I wrote it really fast; the past, like, six ideas I've had someone else has done right as I thought them up, and I wanted to get this DONE, at least the first chapter, before it became plagiarism from someone else. XP Also, I wanted to start out kind of slow... Any OOCness I chalk up to this being when they're all adults, which I hope you will all ignore while criticising. Well, review and tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

by Ember

**Warning**: This chapter contains a lemon... but only on AFF. That's why I'm gettin' it up on Fanfiction now and AFF later.

**A/N**: I love Sakura... it's a shame she's gonna have a pretty shitty role in the first part of the fic... x/ Okay, that was a spoiler, but not a very big one. Still, I don't know why everyone hates her that much.

Oh, and a correction: reference to the Third Hokage's seal in the last chapter should prolly be changed to the _Fourth's_ seal. Damn the Third for being _after_ the Fourth and confusing me... But, no. It's just the seal to keep in the _kyuubi_. No Narutos were attacked by Hokages in the time preceding this fanfic.

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And all I can say is that

My life is pretty plain

I like watching the puddles

Gather rain

And all I can do is just

Pour some tea for two

And state my point of view

But its not sane

It's not sane

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"Well," Sakura said, cheerfully tying off her teammate's braid, "once again, you're dismissed with a clean bill of health, Sasuke." She extended a hand to help him up but shrugged it off easily when he ignored it and stood up himself.

She'd grown a lot in the past couple of years, taller, thinner; she had finally developed breasts and a butt and, as Kiba'd said, a couple of times, she'd finally stumbled upon a body to balance her forehead. For a little while, she'd grown out her hair again, but as she noticed Sasuke _still_ wasn't paying any attention to it, she bemoaned it getting in the way and cut it short again, an inch or two above her shoulders but with longer bangs over her eyes. She'd dyed bright red streaks in it, a final attempt to catch her crush's eye, and now had Lee following every step she took, trying desperately not to drool. Two weeks after the fact, Sasuke had made a short, half-hearted comment in the change, but hadn't appeared particularly captivated by her rebellion.

Sasuke's expression didn't change but his voice revealed his disgust when he replied, "For the second time this month." His stays were short- in this case, only one night- but increasingly more frequent and it ticked him off to have to drag himself to the hospital and lie around, even for only an hour, while other people were buzzing around him, talking about power and seals and dormant chakra.

Sakura smiled, a little sadly, and absent-mindedly swatted Sasuke's hand from where it had drifted to pick at the chakra-nullifying bandage over his left shoulder. It was the closest they could come to treatment and it never worked for more than a week; if Sasuke would let them, they could keep it on him indefinitely and the fits would eventually stop, but it weakened him, kept him from using chakra on his whole left side, and so he vehemently refused. "If I could let you out twenty times a month, I would, Sasuke," she said. "It's almost therapy, having someone come in every once in a while that I _know_ is going to be alright." It was a mixture between flattery, calling him stronger than the others, and honesty- taking care of dying friends was never easy. Sasuke ignored the first and felt vague sympathy and a twinge of respect for the latter, but neither showed up on his face.

There was a brief pause while he changed out of his hospital gown and into regular clothes, before Sakura, looking discreetly away, broke the silence again. "Hey, you want to go get something to eat later?" she asked, hesitantly, without her old shyness- if he hadn't figured out she liked him _yet_, he was a little too simple for her- but with a new sort of uncomfortable feeling. In a lot of ways, she was closer to Sasuke than she'd ever been, despite the fact that now, her presence on his and Naruto's missions depended on whether or not there was any need for her in Konoha, which was constantly changing. She didn't see much of the world anymore, and in some ways she was insanely jealous of Naruto, who got to travel from Wave to Sand and back again beside _her_ crush.

And at the same time, she was always waiting for them when they came back. With a smile and an unashamed hug for Sasuke and a mostly-joking insult for Naruto, she made sure they were okay, told them what they had missed, and healed any injuries they'd gotten, in Naruto's case, those that the _kyuubi_ had been unable or unwilling to heal. She'd been put in charge of Team 7's health, and as a result had seen Sasuke at his very worst, torn apart and naked on a hospital bed, in compromising positions she was pretty sure he'd never shown anyone. As a result of _that_, they had a more complicated relationship than she'd imagined possible. He trusted her, she knew that; she was the first person he came to when he needed help, and yet, whenever he came to her, it was distanced, polite, as if he was willing to get help but never get close. It was like she knew Sasuke on two levels- as a friend, and as a shinobi that she respected and helped but never really knew. She tried to bridge that gap, treated him like a friend whenever he came in to get treatment, but he would never respond.

He turned and glared briefly at her at the invitation, looking annoyed. She swiftly moved to repair the damage done, amending her words. "Naruto can come too, if he wants, just us three. A chance for the team to catch up!"

Sasuke hesitated, then shrugged. "All right," he said, plainly, then walked without another word out of the room, leaving Sakura alone.

She watched him leave, watched the door swing almost closed then hover four inches from the wall, watched the stripe of light from the hall flicker out onto the floor. Watched the shuffle of nurses walking past the white-walled room. "Sasuke," she whispered to no one, the word oddly rhythmical, each syllable like a separate word. She tried to call him back, but he didn't come back. He never had.

An hour later she met Naruto by the lake, tapping his left shoulder from his right side. He had to know she was there- after so many years as a shinobi, he had to have _instincts_ about these things, Hell knew Sasuke had them- but he still, like always, turned to the left and grinned when she chastely hugged him from behind.

"Hey, Sakura," he said, spinning when she released him, brushing the locks of blonde hair from his eyes.

"I haven't talked to you since you came back from the mission, Naruto! You could have at least stuck around after visiting Sasuke and waited to talk to me!"

Naruto grinned and stuck out his tongue, the same way he'd done when they were young. "I didn't want to get in the way," he chided, sarcastically; everyone knew Naruto _still_ got in the way, whenever possible, by whatever _means_ possible.

"Of course not," his teammate replied in the same tone, but she wasn't upset; Naruto hated the hospital, and she knew it. He never went there unless Sasuke was sick, and begged Sakura to come to his apartment when he needed her rather than coming to the melancholy building she worked in.

The blonde smiled and changed the subject to the topic that had been bothering him the whole time. "And speaking of visiting Sasuke, how _is_ he? Did he finally go ahead and die so we don't have to put up with his prickishness anymore?"

"Naruto!"

"Kidding!"

Sakura frowned. "Still..."

"Fine. I'm sorry." Naruto made a face, the same one he always made when everyone's love for Sasuke got the blonde kitsune into trouble, and crossed his arms defensively over his chest. Sakura pouted but forgave him; she had known he was kidding, but it was hard to hear him talking about how much better off they'd be with Sasuke dead when she nearly had a heart attack every time the nurses told her Sasuke was back in.

And when every time this happened, she remembered, years ago, seeing Sasuke shrug her hand off his shoulder and walk away, to join Orochimaru and leave Konoha to rot, and wondered if maybe she was doing Konoha no favors by saving him every time...

_That's no way to think, Sakura!_

"Sasuke's fine," she said, rolling her eyes in mock exasperation to let the blonde know his crude remarks were forgiven. "He was released from the hospital this afternoon. We're going out to dinner tonight; you're invited." Her tone made it obvious that he wasn't completely welcome, but Naruto, being Naruto, missed it and immediately brightened at the prospect of a night on the town with his old best friends.

"Awesome!" he yelled, loud enough that a few screaming blackbirds rose from the reeds. The two shinobi paused to watch them, and when she turned back, Naruto was grinning enthusiastically. "Hey, Sakura! Kiba said there's going to be an Anbu exam soon!"

"I've heard that," the other replied, silently cursing Kiba's stupid, loud mouth to hell. Of course, Kiba hadn't known better than to comment, he didn't know anything because Tsunade hadn't wanted Sakura to tell anyone, but that didn't make it better.

Naruto didn't notice the odd expression on her face and in her voice. He was too excited. "Me and Sasuke had to go on a mission the last Anbu exam, but this time, I just got back from a mission and Sasuke can get out of getting a new one by just using Sharingan enough and working up the curse! We'll finally graduate from Chuunin!"

Sakura smiled wanly. "Good luck." She wouldn't be taking the exam; she'd been a Jounin for a year, now, like almost everyone else in their grade level.

"Luck? Sakura, we've been Chuunin forever!" Naruto was wearing his most confident smile, shoving blonde hair of his eyes as he tumbled down in his excitement. "We're better than most of the Jounin- not you, of course- and we're more than ready to finally move up!"

The medic-nin smiled. "I know," she said, thankful that her teammate was either too thick to hear the sadness in her voice or unwilling to show it if he did.

¤¤

Tsunade shrugged and nervously shuffled a pile of papers on her desk. "Frankly, Sakura," she said quietly, speaking, to all appearances, directly to her desk, "I have no idea _what_ we're going to do about this exam. Too many missions and it'll become suspicious."

"You're going to let them compete?" Sakura looked up from the raven lying stretched out on the steel table in front of her, broad wings bandaged and a stripe of red slowly scarring over. She had gotten good enough to heal almost every human patient, but a lot of the harder animals she also worked on, even though she was really less of an apprentice now than a full-fledged medic-nin- the raven belonged to an Anbu shinobi who used them to scout ahead and spy on enemies and usually had about four or five on her person. The huge bird cawed hoarsely at being ignored and the rose-haired ninja turned back to it with a small smile for its obnoxious behavior.

Tsunade shrugged, watching her pupil carefully, taking inventory of even the smallest mistakes to correct the moment it occurred. "I don't know. We might have to."

"I think you should."

"That goes to show- don't cut there, Sakura, it's too close to the artery."

"It's a good half-inch from the artery, Tsunade, and I know what I'm doing." The bird seemed uncomfortable but its entire body was numbed so it didn't feel the scalpel running down the side of its neck, deep enough that Sakura could see a little bit of metal that had broken off the kunai on impact. She grabbed a pair of sterilized pliers to lift it from the skin and feathers. "Do you trust them?"

"Pardon?"

"You know what I'm talking about, Tsunade." Even as she dropped the bloody bit of steel on the table, the cut she'd made and the cut the kunai had left was sticking together and scarring over; healing such tiny cuts barely caused a ripple in her chakra if she did it just right. "People are still talking about Sasuke, he's the infamous traitor of Konoha. And Naruto..."

"What would Konoha do if a demon joined the top ranks of shinobi?" Tsunade sighed and passed her hand over her face, smoothing out the locks of hair draping in her face. "I don't understand. Gaara could become Hokage, but Naruto becomes Chuunin and I have shinobi telling me if he makes it any higher they'll lead a rebellion and have me overthrown."

Sakura frowned and checked the bone growth in the corvid's broken wings. The left one was almost completely healed; the right one was knitting at the highest calcium deposits but it would take another couple minutes, even with her attention. "The Sand country," she said at last, thoughtfully, "is barely a country. They're just developing, they don't have the customs and regulations that the Fire Country has and Gaara doesn't break standard because there _is_ no standard." She began removing the bandage from the left wing, which was now completely healed, and continued, "And I don't think the _shukaku_ tried to destroy their city."

"I thought you wanted me to let them compete, Sakura."

The pink-haired shinobi shrugged. "I do. But... I understand how the people of Konoha think, too." She sighed and ran her finger down the soft feathers of her patient's wing, watching with a strange inner sense the healing bone fluctuate with her touch. "A few years ago, they loved Sasuke, like no one else."

"They still love him. Just not the idea of him with power of any kind within the barriers of this city." The sarcastic comment was emphasized with a dry shrug, and Tsunade, delaying some of the dreaded paperwork that came with being a Hokage, picked up a blue pen and poked at a torpid fly on the edge of her desk, trying to coax it off the surface.

Her doors rattled with a loud knock, startling Sakura although long practice kept her shock from interfering with her healing. "The hell is it?" she barked, forgetting for a second that this wasn't her office and snapping at guests was Tsunade's job.

The door swung open enough to admit a shaggy brunette head. "You wanted to see me, Tsunade?"

"Yeah. Come in, Kiba. You can stay, Sakura."

"I should hope so. I'm in the middle of this." Sakura was glad to see Kiba; Iruka and Hinata, along with a couple other of her peers, couldn't handle the sight of animals in pain or blood and didn't like watching her work, though Kiba seemed just fine with it. She supposed after a lifetime of paper-training baby siblings the Inuzuba clan as a whole was difficult to disgust.

"You have a mission for us, Hokage-sama?" Despite the title, the question was majorly informal, as was Kiba's pose as he flopped down in the chair opposing Tsunade's desk. Kiba's 'team' had been broken when Hinata had left it to become a teacher, joining Lee, Shikamaru and Chouji in training to be the next generation of team leaders. He and Shino had joined with Neji and Ino, while TenTen became an ambassador to the Wave Country, on her own.

Kiba had grown taller and a little broader, his hair hanging down in curled knots to his earlobes, a shaggy, half-shaved beard defining his jaw. Akamaru was a little bigger but, aside from being a little older, was more-or-less unchanged, but he _did_ have a rival, a little reddish shiba inu, named, cleverly, Kyuubi, who was technically Shino's dog- a gift from Kiba- but followed the canine-nin as much as the Aburame.

"I do," Tsunade said with a wry smile. Sakura wasn't listening as her mentor detailed Kiba's mission; she wrapped up her healing and slowly lowered the concentration of the sedatives in the raven's bloodstream, using a faint stream of chakra to stimulate the white blood cells into attacking the drugs. The bird bobbed its head groggily, sensation returning to its limbs, and, with the pink-haired shinobi's help, slowly got to its feet.

"I should take the bird home," she told Tsunade, who broke off her tirade to Kiba about keeping Akamaru from marking his territory and giving away their position to any other shinobi who might be able to enhance their smell to nod once in her direction.

¤¤¤¤

With a massive, jaw-stretching yawn, Naruto collapsed backwards onto his couch, his head in the corner between the arm and the back, his eyes half-closed. It had been another lazy day between-missions, during which he perhaps should have been training but he didn't want to. Relatively stress-free, when one forgot about his second visit to the hospital. Which was hard to do when he was visiting _Sasuke_ in the hospital and Sasuke was never far enough from his thoughts to be considered 'forgotten.'

And right on cue, his front door swung open and the Uchiha walked in, brushing his bangs out of his eyes with two pale fingers. He looked over at the couch, the blonde hair and orange clothing catching his gaze, smiled and waved lazily. Even after inviting Naruto to come live with him- discreetly as possible, given, but they hadn't been found out yet- he was still sometimes surprised by his lover's presence in his home.

"Hey, Sasuke," the blonde said. He didn't ask if the Uchiha was alright, because Sasuke hated being asked if he was alright, he hated being reminded that there was a reason why he _wouldn't_ be alright. He was out of the hospital, so he was fine; outside of the sterilized white walls, there was nothing wrong with him, no such thing as a curse seal and a man named Orochimaru had never come within a hundred feet of him.

But Naruto knew otherwise and, when the taller man crossed the distance between them and leaned down to kiss him, he could taste his lover's need, just short of desperate, for normalcy, for comfort in the disguise of anything but comfort, and gave what he could. Their tongues rubbed against each other, delved into each other's mouths, pulled back only slowly and hesitantly, so both boys could breathe. Sasuke's dark eyes were half-closed, and Naruto stopped everything for one second just to love the way his long lashes almost obscured the heat beneath them. He loved Sasuke's eyes.

The black-haired shinobi clambered on top of him slowly, his legs balanced on either side of his lover's waist. Naruto wriggled to prop his shoulders on the arm of the couch, grinning slightly at the way Sasuke's breath hitched when his kitsune moved under him.

¤¤¤¤¤¤

Sasuke's chest was warm and his breathing had synchronized to his lover's; the blonde splayed over him, hands buried under his shirt. Naruto's eyelids felt heavy and he let them fall.

Only to be suddenly very aware of red-gold eyes staring over his shoulder, boring into the back of his head, glued to his back. Slit-pupil red eyes in the back of his mind.

His own eyes flew open again, and caught sight of the clock. That, more than the sensation of being watched, which still lingered even though the eyes were gone, was what made him panic and flail, falling off Sasuke's chest and landing on a heap on the floor.

"Something wrong?" Sasuke asked, tiredly and a little sarcastically.

"The time." Naruto scrambled upright, grabbed his pants, regarded them, then threw them aside; they couldn't be called 'clean' even in a twenty-one-year-old bachelor's mind. "We were supposed to meet Sakura over an hour ago!"

Sasuke sat bolt upright, glanced over at the clock, and winced. He hadn't exactly been looking forward to meeting Sakura but he would really, really prefer not to piss her off, not when Team 7 had only been in the city for two days now. "Well, shit," he said simply.

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E/N: A lemon in the second chapter? Well, what can I say. I have no self-control. Which is good, 'cause I write about boys with no self-control, and you're supposed to write about what you know. If'n you want to read the less edited version of the chapter, a link to my AFF account is on my profile. If it doesn't work, tell me; those links screw up twice a week. x/ All reviews are appreciated, of course.


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